Dvo's California Trip

[Dvo]

So this past week, I took a long-awaited vacation to southern California. Growing up in the Midwest, I’ve always promised myself that I would get to Six Flags Magic Mountain sometime in my life. Finally, the time had arrived. And I figured while I was out there, I would hit up Knott’s Berry Farm, as it’s a Cedar Fair park and I’m getting a platinum pass anyway.

Since Knott’s is open on weekdays, I started there on Thursday. I didn’t expect much of a crowd, considering it’s a weekday in January, and boy was I right. The park was virtually empty. I had originally planned on staying from open to close, but by 2:30 I was basically bored of the place. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a very nice park. Here’s my ride reviews..

Silver Bullet- This was my first ride of the day (first train), and by far the best ride I got on. I’ve never been on a B&M Invert that was so smooth. The overbanked turn after the loop is fantastic as well. I don’t like the first drop. It seems a little drawn out. But after that, it’s just nonstop fun. I made sure to ride this several times that day : )

Ghost Rider- A lot of people really like this woodie, but I must say, I was a little disappointed. The first two hills are really good, but after that it just seemed really bumpy and not too fun. The hills provided some decent airtime, but I had a hard time enjoying them as I was trying to brace myself from being tossed around. I love the “mine shaft” you go through to enter the queue.

Montezooma’s Revenge: Can’t go wrong with a Schwarzkopf loop! Great ride.

Jaguar- I was really excited when I saw the entrance to this ride. You have to enter through a giant Aztec-looking temple, and the majority of the queue is themed rather well. The ride, however… boring.

Supreme Scream- A standard S&S launch tower. I’m not sure if there are upward launches on this (similar to Power Tower at Cedar Point) or not, as they only had one spike open. I thought it was interesting that they launched you down immediately when you get to the top. No anticipation factor whatsoever.

Boomerang- My first classic boomerang coaster, and quite possibly my last. It wasn’t overly fun, and it was certainly jerky.

Pony Express- Longest line of the day, dumbest ride of the day. Enough said.

Sierra Sidewinder- My first spinning coaster. It’s a good ride for the kids. I went in not expecting too much, so I enjoyed it.

Excelerator was closed for refurbishment, so I didn’t get that credit. : (

The overall atmosphere at Knott’s is really nice. I like the “faux” mountains around the park. I rode the Calico Mine Ride, which was pretty neat. The caverns looked pretty good, and I liked the indoor waterfalls for sure.

I was really looking forward to La Revolucion, but after I got off I was pretty underwhelmed. Not nearly as good as a giant Frisbee.

Finally, I went to the Mystery Lodge. That was a really enjoyable show. I’m still pretty puzzled about it, so they did a very good job. Overall, Knott’s was a nice, clean park with great atmosphere and some fun rides.

I spent a few days in San Diego with my uncle, and then on Sunday I made the trek up to Valencia for Magic Mountain.

I got to SFMM about a half hour before the park opened, and there was a good-sized crowd waiting to get in. Or so I thought. Obeying the advice of another guest, I jogged to X2 for my first ride, and I got on the first train. Let me say this; ever since X opened, I’ve been dying to get on this thing. And WOW it did not disappoint. X2 is just unbelievable. Right when you depart the station they give you a classic Sinatra-esque love song, and then some electronic feedback like the monster is taking over. Then it fades out and right as you start up the lift, it hits you with some Metallica. When I first heard that, I went from really excited to insanely pumped. I had some serious adrenaline flowing before I even crested the hill. The events after that… wow. The first drop is just incredible. I even knew that I was going to be flipped face-down, but when it happened I couldn’t suppress my scream of delight. It’s phenomenal. Then the rest of the ride was just a blur of flips in ways that I’ve never been flipped. Fire being blasted right in your face. All the while some crazy rock tunes are being pumped into your ears. By the end, I was just awestruck. X2 is utterly fantastic.

The kid that rode with me advised me to go to Tatsu next, as he said the line usually gets pretty long for it. So I walked up the hill to Tatsu to find another empty station. I walked right on, and away I went. Tatsu is a great ride in its own respect. If it were on level terrain, it would be fun. But because it towers over the park on the hill, Tatsu is just fantastic. The views are amazing around every single turn. I’m willing to bet this is the only flyer we’ll see with the pretzel loop at the END of the ride.

After Tatsu, I decided that I wanted another lap on X2, while I was on this side of the park. I hit Viper on the way there- a very good looper, but a little jerky- and then got in line for X2. I was about 5 minutes from the station, when I noticed that no trains had been dispatched in a while. After about 15 minutes, they announced that it was down mechanical. I figured I would move on and come back later. A good decision, as it was down for a good chunk of the day.

I spent the next several hours going all the way around the park in a clockwise manner. The Revolution was very surprising.. I was expecting a pretty tame ride with the sole focus being the loop. However I really enjoyed it. The first few hills are really fun, never knowing where you’re going next. And the loop is very good as well, obviously.

Next was Superman: The Escape. Another coaster(?) I’ve been longing to ride for a very long time. I’m sure most of you will expect this.. I was pretty disappointed. The launch is rather boring, and you don’t even come close to the top of the tower.

Ninja was closed, so I moved on to Terminator. This was one of the few rides for which I actually had to wait (more on that later). I kept wondering why they had so many line separators, until I got to the building with the pre-ride movie. The movie was pretty cool. For a minute, they almost had me convinced that there actually was a giant robot outside. The ride itself is very fun. It maintains a ton of speed throughout, and some of the quick transitions are just fantastic. Not to mention how smooth it is. Well worth the wait.

Déjà vu was closed, but I’m too tall for those anyway… So I grabbed a quick lunch and hit Gold Rusher. That was a pretty tame ride, but some of those head-choppers are terrifying when you’re 6 foot 6!

Up next was Riddler’s Revenge. Yet another coaster I’ve been longing to get on for a very long time. Yes, I said it. I wanted to get on a B&M Stand Up for a very long time. You can certainly see the similarities in the layout of RR and some other B&M stand-ups, but Riddler is definitely the best I’ve been on. My legs were a tad bit sore, but it’s well worth it.

Moving on, I hit the Batman clone. Always a pretty good ride. However this one had a fresh blue paint job. I loved that! : )

Then I walked down to Scream! And Colossus. I’d never been on a floorless coaster, so the front seat on Scream! Was a very interesting and fun experience. Colossus was a pretty fun out and back woodie. I like the abundance of drops. But I felt like something was missing… wasn’t I supposed to be holding a gun to Jon Candy?

I finally made it to Goliath, to find about a 30 minute wait. I got on the back seat, and up, up, up we went. Then after CREEPING over the top, we dove down, got some serious speed. Went through the turnaround, got some good floater air, and then WHAM! In true B&M hyper fashion we hit the MCBR of all MCBR’s. All that momentum just gets killed. And then you go into the high-g helix. Whoopie. The MCBR killed that ride for me.

So now that I had basically done the whole park, I headed back over to the X2/Tatsu area. Tatsu was a literal walk-on all day long. There was no one in the park. The only three rides I had to wait for all day were Terminator, X2, and Goliath. Needless to say I got more than enough laps on Tatsu, and I got 4 rides on X2.

Can’t say enough about Magic Mountain. The only complaint I really have is the lack of flats. There’s 2 spinny rides by Batman, but other than that it’s just water rides and roller coasters. Nonetheless, the park was exceptionally clean, the crowds were obviously very light, and the coasters are just wonderful. I love how the park is laid out on such uneven terrain. That is something that many Midwest parks lack. They’ve used some creative genius in designing that park, and I hope I’ll be back there sooner before later. One last thing… I thought it was really funny how after 6 pm, the weather dropped to about 60 degrees and most of the Californians were putting on pants and even coats while I was standing comfortably in my tee shirt and shorts!

My trip to California was simply wonderful. I’m working on getting pictures up on photobucket.

[DropZone99]

Sounds exciting! Sucks Xcellerator is closed, I think it's supposed to open at the end of this month. It also sucks that Ninja, and Deja Vu were closed. I always here people talking about how bout Superman: The Escape is. I personally think it looks fun, it's pretty much Rollback: The Ride and it looks like you'd get good floater air on it. On Goliath, did it make you dizzy at all, cause I've heard that it (and even more, Titan) make people 'gray out' a little bit. I also agree SFMM lacks flat rides, they really need a good indoor themed attraction, a Drop Tower, and some more flats like Delirium and maybe Xcalibur at SFSTL. I can't wait to see the photos!

[BoddaH1994]

Great trip report! X2 is one of my "must do before I die" rides.

[Tom76257]

Nice trip report, Dvo! I'm saddened that you didn't get to ride Xcelerator (I REALLY wanna ride that!), but I think multiple laps on X2 and Tatsu certainly make up for that.

One thing - Goliath was manufactured by Giovanola, not B & M. The one thing their hypers have in common, though, is their hard-hitting MCBR. I've seen multiple POVs of both Goliath and Titan at SFOT and in ALL the videos the mid-course brings them to an almost complete stop.

Did you ride both sides on Colossus and Superman: The Escape?

[The Interpreter]

Thanks for the great report. It truly is a shame what has happened to Ghost Rider...that was a very good ride when it opened.

Did you happen to eat anything either place? And did you happen to notice if Knott's was still imposing their "no eyeglasses on hardly anything even if you do have a strap" rule?

[Dvo]

Ok let's see...

Tom: Both Colossus and S:TE only had one side open that day, and that was more than they needed in terms of staffing, haha. And yeah, that mcbr is killer on goliath. Sorry about the manufacturer error!

Terp: I was planning on getting some chicken at Ms. Knott's on Thursday, but I decided to save a few bucks and go elsewhere. At SFMM I went to one of the burger joints. So no, I didn't really divulge into the foods.

As far as glasses go, yes they're still using that rule. No glasses on basically everything. It was amazing the difference... At knott's you basically couldn't bring anything on rides. But my first ride on X2, I brought my camera case hoping there would be a loose articles bin, and as I was sitting down I asked the ride op, and he just said "you have to ride with it." I was like WOW! granted I put it in temporary lockers for most of the day, but that was pretty cool.

More importantly: PICTURES ARE UP! http://s1016.photobucket.com/albums/af282/dtrain1008/

[standbyme]

Thanks for the report...and the pictures!

[Dvo]

Glad to share them. It was an absolute blast.

[Jasper]

Those are some very nice pictures Dvo. I, like you, have one goal in Amusement Park and Roller Coasters. To get out to SFMM. I really love their collection coasters and would really like to ride X2. I doubt I will ever be able to get out there but I will always have this TR to look back and be like, oh so that's what it's like.

[luff]

Dvo You are supposed to shoot John Candy in the rear with a BB gun right before riding Colossus.

Too bad you missed Ninja. It is a nice long suspended that does a good job of following the mountain in the middle of the park

Glad you had a great time.

[RailRider]

DVO enjoyed the trip report. Thanks for sharing. I too am heading to Southern California at the end of the month, but I will be visiting Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. While I had planned my daughters first trip to Disney World, Disneyland is a quick substitute. Thanks again DVO for sharing, just getting me even more excited for our trip.

[Dvo]

No problem . I stopped just outside the Disney parks to try to get a few pictures, but if you can't tell in the photo album, they keep it really well-hidden from outsiders!

[KI Kevin]

I can'twait to go to these parks in April!